Jana Kramer Strives to Follow in Kellie Pickler's Dancing Footsteps

September 12, 2016

Tonight as season 23 of Dancing with the Stars kicks off on ABC, a country artist will once again have a shot at taking home the mirror-ball trophy, just like Kellie Pickler did back in 2013. This time, it’s “I Got the Boy” hitmaker Jana Kramer who’s showing off her fancy footwork. So far, she says it’s been every bit as much hard work as she expected — especially since she has a little one at home.

“Expectations and the reality… they’ve matched up, because I knew it was going to be tough and it is tough,” Jana tells ABC Radio. “I knew it was going to be challenging, I knew it was going to be a time commitment, but that’s something that I really wanted to do, because I want to just show moms out there that we can kick butt, we can have a career, we can raise beautiful children and we can kick butt doing all of it.”

So far, Jana says balancing motherhood and competitive dancing is going well, even though she just gave birth on the last day of January this year.

“She’s amazing,” she says of her daughter. “She’s seven-months-old and she’s learning to crawl and her first tooth is coming in, so she’s a little person. I feel like when I come back from dancing, I come back to Jolie and I’m even more excited to see her.”

Jana and partner Gleb Savchenko are set to tackle the Viennese Waltz when Dancing with the Stars premieres at 8 p.m. ET on ABC. Gleb hints he’d like to eventually do a routine that starts with Jana performing her latest single “Circles,” before she takes to the dance floor.